Saturday, November 16, 2002

The son of former Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts has been charged in Cleveland County District Court with a felony count of unlawful possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

Jerrell Christopher Watts, 23, is accused of having marijuana in his possession when city police were called to the scene of a possible domestic disturbance between Watts and his girlfriend in September.

District Attorney Tim Kuykendall said police found “a relatively small amount — less than two ounces” of what they believed to be marijuana in the younger Watts’ possession.

All flights to the United States were grounded, so Gore asked his hosts, which included the Austrian government, to get him to North America. Eventually he got on a flight to Canada, where the Mounties drove him over the closed border into the United States. In Buffalo, he and an aide rented a car, intending to drive to Washington for the service at National Cathedral.

While he and the aide were driving, Bill Clinton called. He'd been flown to the United States on military transport, and was now at home in New York. Bush was sending a plane to take him to National Cathedral. Why didn't Gore drive to Chappaqua and fly down with him? Clinton gave him directions to get to the house, so that's where Gore went, arriving in the middle of the night. Clinton had waited up. He was doing some renovating, with the result that there was a refrigerator on the front porch. "Al arrives at about 3:30 in the morning, sees the refrigerator on the porch, and the first thing he says is, 'I see you've managed to bring a little bit of Arkansas to New York,' " Clinton recalled in a statement for this article. "And I knew that after all he'd been through, he hadn't lost his sense of humor."

In his new controversial book BUSH AT WAR, Bob Woodward reveals interior monologues of key newsmakers, including a description of National
security adviser Condoleezza Rice's thoughts -- as she watched television alone...

WOODWARD CAPTURES CONDI'S THOUGHTS WHILE SHE IS ALONE WATCHING TV!

Haha, maybe this will finally stop Booby from writing his ridiculous books.

If Hootie Johnson wrote a Swiftian satire like Burk's, proposing that women should be equipped with Norplant to be removed only with their partners consent, he would be a feminist, fergawdssake. He'd be satirizing the same anti-choice position that Burk is satirizing and everybody on the planet except for certain literal minded right wingers and a claque of mendacious propagandists would know that.

Now, if Reynolds had presented a case in which Hootie wrote a Swiftian satire proposing that women be given the choice to kill their children up to the age of 18, he would have found the proper corollary. But, again, everyone sane would know that it was satire and I can't think of any left leaning writer who would attempt to pass it off as a literal proposal or say that is betrayed some kind of inappropriate stridency in it's language. They would find his position absurd, but they wouldn't punish him for the form of his writing, but rather the intention of the piece.

Satire is more than a spoof or a parody, although it can take that form. It's a way of exposing the folly of certain arguments and attitudes. It turns an exagerated mirror on people and forces them to examine their views from the perspective of the other side. It often makes people angry. That is the point. But, you have to get the point in the first place.

Poor Reynolds is all caught up in the actual words of her satire rather than the intent, which is just embarrassing. Her anti-abortion "spoof" was what, inappropriate? Did all that talk of sterilization hurt his feelings and make him uncomfortable? I'm getting the feeling that Reynolds may be a bit too sensitive for political debate. Certainly he should stay away from satire. It's often ill-mannered and inappropriate. (Just like those nasty Democrats in Minnesota. Rude, rude, rude.)

What is "abundantly clear" is that this is one confused lil' Professor who just can't admit he was duped by a mendacious right wing columnist and that he doesn't really understand what satire is. How humiliating for him.

Instapundit's example of unfair treatment at the hands of liberals involves some kids who thought dressing in blackface for Halloweenwould be really cool. While it's pretty clear that their (and Glenn's) university has no legal right to punish them for this, and if they try the kids will have a nice lawsuit, their national fraternity has every right. If Glenn disagrees with the decisions of a private organization, he can perhaps begin a campaign against them similar to that of Martha Burk's. If this is the best concrete example of PC-overkill and double standards that Glenn can come up with, then I really wonder what's gotten him so upset.

These kids most likely did a dumb, and not malicious, thing. However, if it was simply a dumb thing and the kids don't realize that invoking clear symbols of historical racism might make some people mad then obviously the unavoidable unrelenting power of the PC crowd never managed to break through into their little worlds. Clearly its strangehold on the consciousness of youth is not as powerful as some would have us believe.

I'm not sure why I have to explan why dressing in blackface is the kind of behavior that a national fraternal organziation doesn't want its members engaging in. Such things don't reflect well, for good reasons, and such organizations are very much concerned for their reputations. I'm sure they would respond similarly if the students had decided to throw a "Schindler's List" party and have everyone dress as concentration camp victims, whether the members involved were white, black, brown, yellow, Jewish, purple, or green. It isn't simply about the race/religion/ethnicity of the people involved.

In a world where Don Imus, on radio and TV, is regularly sucked up to by leading politicians and media figures, left and right, where Ann Coulter has a regular media presence (print and television), where Rush Limbaugh does election night analysis for NBC, and where Gordon Liddy and Michael Savage and a host of others remain on the air, I'm really at a loss to understand where this feeling of oppression comes from. Actually, that's not entirely true - I expect I might understand it, but it is frightfully sad.

But, as I thought was abundantly clear, my point was that if, say, Hootie Johnson wrote a piece calling for all women to be equipped with Norplant, to be removed only with the consent of their "designated partners" nobody would be bending over backwards to cut him slack because it was a spoof. How hard is this point to understand?

What exactly would this be a spoof of? I mean, to be a spoof one needs to be spoofing something. Do we need to explain the very concepts of humor, satire, parody, etc.. now?

Jeebus.

For the record:

Funny is when Jonah Goldberg thinks a Twain satire on censorship is actually in support of it and K-Lo either willfully or stupidly doesn't realize a a piece entitled 'A Modest Proposal' is satire.

Friday, November 15, 2002

We are members of the legal teams that helped overturn the convictions of Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi and Minoru Yasui in the mid-1980s for their refusal to obey the military orders aimed at Japanese Americans during World War II. Like all Americans, we mourn the loss of lives on 9/11 and remain concerned about the nation's security. But through the lens of the unique Japanese American historical perspective, we have become extremely alarmed at the Bush Administration's attempts, primarily through Attorney General John Ashcroft, to steamroll our civil rights and squelch any criticism or dissent.

We are concerned that the ugly precedent set by the Supreme Court's infamous decision in 1943 and 1944, which upheld Korematsu's, Hirabayashi's and Yasui's wartime convictions, are being revived by the Bush Administration to justify the mass internment of "suspected terrorists". By exploiting the tragedy of 9/11, Ashcroft, on behalf of this Administration, has pushed through legislation and issued orders that are seriously compromising our civil rights.

Here are some examples of Ashcroft's war on civil rights:

1. * He has secretly arrested and detained over 1000 people "suspected" of terrorism and has withheld their names from the public;

2. * He has proposed the creation of detention camps for U.S. citizens whom this Administration, without judicial review, secretly deems to be "enemy combatants";

3. * He has imprisoned U.S. citizens indefinitely in military brigs without bail, criminal charges, or access to attorneys, and has ordered people to be held in jail without charges, in violation of the Administration's own USA PATRIOT Act, which requires charges within 7 days of their arrest;

4. * He has breached the protective wall between criminal prosecutions and national security investigations, which was erected toprevent wiretap and surveillance abuse;

5. * He has authorized the monitoring of privileged communications between attorneys and federal
prisoners/detainees;

6. * He has ordered the continued detention of people in custody even after an immigration judge has found them eligible for release.

There are more examples, but it is clear to us that Ashcroft presents a clear and present danger to the Constitution, to civil rights and to anyone who chooses to dissent against the Administration's policies. We believe John Ashcroft is simply not fit for the position of Attorney General of the United States - he is a right wing extremist.

We believe it is now time to call for his removal as Attorney General.

Americans have been reluctant to stand up to Bush and Ashcroft because of the political authority conferred on them by the tragic events of 9/11. But silence now is the same silence which allowed Japanese Americans to go to prison with only a few isolated dissents. Ashcroft's policies and actions demonstrate that he is incapable of understanding or learning this lesson.

We would like to reach out to the larger American public with our concerns through the mass mailing of a letter similar to the above. If you agree with us, please signify your agreement via email response to this email so that we can use your name to support another letter to be sent to as many like-minded friends demanding Ashcroft's removal and offering specific ideas for breaking the silence and taking action. We will send you the final letter for your approval before we disseminate it.

If we receive an enthusiastic response we will coordinate an even larger public action calling for his removal. If we don't get such a response, we will try to publish that letter as an op-ed or open letter.

Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) was outed for having an affair with Deborah Steelman, a health care lobbyist who routinely had business with Thomas' health care committee and steered huge campaign gifts to Thomas' war chest. Steelman, now a vice president for Eli Lilly, did not deny the affair; rather, she was enraged that anyone would think having sex with Thomas gave her undue advantage: "To suggest I would stoop to an 'inappropriate relationship' to achieve legislative results is repugnant and sexist."

According to a report just heard on NPR, the provision in the Homeland Security bill regarding doing business with companies evading taxes using offshore subsidiaries was removed. This, of course, it the final slam at the memory of Paul Wellstone, who had proposed that amendment putting it in.

The following exchanges, while sure to interest Note readers and historians, actually won't be part of tonight's 20/20 broadcast, so you can read them only here
and now:

WALTERS: I'm not sure that people realize that while you were in the residence of the Vice President there were crowds of people outside screaming at you.
What was that all about?

AL GORE: Well, this was the Republican response to what was happening during that 36-day period, and they organized busloads of people that came and stood
outside the house all day and all night screaming at the top of their lungs.

WALTERS: What, "Get out!"?

TIPPER GORE: Things like that, yes, and, and sometimes … things that we don't want to say on your program, and, some people saw that they were buses from
"churches," but it was organized. The one thing that, that they did mainly was reach the bedrooms of our children, and Albert was still in school locally, and
trying to study, so we rearranged, you know, they … kids moved to a different part of the house, and I was trying to think of a way that we could kind of laugh
about this since obviously it was out of our control, there wasn't anything anybody could do so I got all the boom boxes in the house and … I remember sort of
what the government did with Noriega … I thought we'd try that, and I aimed them at, toward, you know, where the crowd …

WALTERS: The crowd?

TIPPER GORE: … And I put nature sounds on and turned it all the way up. And at least the kids laughed.

AL GORE: There were a few, more than a few who supported us and were offended by the organized chanting round the clock who came out on the other street
corner during the day to express their support with signs, and … You know, emotions were running high throughout the country and it was just an
unprecedented time.

KARENNA GORE: Well, when we were in the Vice President's house during the recount, it was it was very intense. And one of the things I remember is that there
was a … an organized effort by, I don't know whether it was the RNC or it was … it was right-wing groups, it was definitely Bush-campaign-oriented effort to bus
in people to have a sort of siege at the Vice President's house, and, so, they were all lining there, screaming, and it was kind of an assortment of groups. I mean,
some of them were anti, um, were anti-abortion groups, and some of them were pro-gun groups, and some of them … they all had their different signs. But they
were all screaming, "Get out of Cheney's house," the whole time. ]And I just remember being there next to my dad, because I went for a run, and I ran back
through them, and I was very upset when I came into the house. And my whole attitude was, like, "We've got to fight back harder. And where are our
crowds?" And my dad, I'll never forget his response. He said, "We have to do what's best for the country, and it is not good for the country to
have this kind of divisiveness. And he was on the phone, really calling off the dogs. There were people who wanted to fan the … the flames of the racial issue
and have real unrest. And he was on the phone asking them not to, because of what was best for the country not because of what was best for him politically.
And that's really who he is.

WALTERS: Do you remember the crowds outside screaming?

KRISTEN GORE: The crowds that were screaming outside our house, you know, "Get out of Cheney's house." And other things … of that nature, were really
upsetting. It was difficult … It was just very … upsetting that someone would … yell those things at us. It felt … we felt sort of like … trapped in this … you know,
little house with all these people yelling mean things. It's no fun. You know, whether you're a child of the person who they're directed at, or anyone else. It … it
wasn't a good situation.

WALTERS: Were you scared?

KRISTEN GORE: I was scared that the truth was not going to come out. That's what I was.

The audience included several dozen protesters who held signs critical of various issues, including war against Iraq. But they were largely quiet and respectful. In the question-and-answer session, a woman politely asked Mr. Rove if the administration was concerned over the possibility that 200,000 innocent Iraqis might die in an American-led invasion.

Mr. Rove responded, "I'm more concerned about the 3,000 who died on 9/11."

DID WE MENTION THE FACT THAT SPIN WINS? When have you seen such an odd lead paragraph? In yesterday’s Post, Helen Dewar wrote the page-one lead story about the Homeland Security bill. Here’s how she got things started:

DEWAR (pgh 1): The drive to create a federal Department of Homeland Security, one of President Bush’s top priorities since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, drew close to fruition yesterday as key senators agreed to a slightly revised version of the White House’s proposal.

Say what? Bush, of course, opposed the department when it was proposed—and opposed it for roughly eight months after that! Somehow, they’d heard this at the New York Times. If you read far enough into yesterday’s piece, you did receive this information:

FIRESTONE/BUMILLER (pgh 14): In fact, the White House had rejected the idea of a consolidated security department when it was proposed last year by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee...
(15) The administration changed its mind in June after the idea gained unstoppable Congressional momentum.

But that history had ceased to exist in the Post, where Homeland Sec had become Bush’s long-standing cause. Meanwhile, Firestone also confabulated a tad, right at the top of his piece:

FIRESTONE/BUMILLER (pgh 2): The measure would collect in one department tasks now spread over 22 federal agencies...White House officials said they were pleased by today’s breakthrough and expressed hope that a completed bill could be on the president’s desk for signature by Thanksgiving.
(3) Democrats who had held up the measure before Republicans regained control of Congress in the midterm elections gave in to relaxed Civil Service rules demanded by the White House.

According to Firestone, Democrats “had held up the measure” before last week’s elections. In fact, it was Republicans who refused to allow a Senate vote on Homeland Security. Dems opposed the president’s version of the bill, but offered to take up-or-down votes. Republicans wouldn’t allow it.

White male victimhood is reaching epidemic proportions. This is just all too ridiculous to even bother with. I suppose I can't resist however. See TAPPED for Instapundit's latest noble stance against liberal satire and humor.

Does Instapundit own a radio? That's where all the really hilarious right wing guys hang out. Limbaugh. Imus. Leykis. Oh, there's also that P.J. O'Rourke dude. That Jonah Goldberg guy tries to be funny. He hasn't been locked in the feminazi re-education camp thus far (feminazi!! haha, it's not anti-semitic!! It doesn't trivialize the holocaust because it's FUNNY!!).

Just because something is (supposed to be) humorous doesn't mean it is beyond criticism. But, recognizing that it is humor is necessary to demonstrate that you even understood what you read/heard/saw. Anyway, now we know why conservatives aren't funny - it's because us liberals won't let them tell their REALLY GOOD jokes.

In one last-minute addition, Representative Dick Armey, Republican of Texas, inserted a provision that was apparently intended to protect Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical giant, from lawsuits over thimerosal, a mercury-based vaccine preservative that some parents contend has caused autism in their children.

Wednesday, November 13, 2002

It's nice that Bill Safliar occasionally puts forward something to justify his civil libertarian street cred... but, Bill, 'the buck stops here.' Remember?
UPDATE: Damn, even Drudge is hyping the logo. There must be a war between the conservative-libertarian and libertarian-conservative wings of the Republican party.

I love it when Josh Marshall stops being sweet. He needs to do it more often. He can be quite the asshole sometimes:

Let's hash out a hypothetical. What if there was a columnist for one of the prestige news weeklies and suddenly he completely lost his mind and started penning column after column about how he had taken command of a ragtag army of snails and lemurs who were running through the neighborhood stealing from the rich and giving to the poor?

Would there be an intervention? Would he lose his column? Or would things just keep going on as per usual with maybe a few people chiming in about his edgy new style and crackerjack reporting?

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 12 — As many as four university students were killed and dozens of others were wounded Monday night when Afghan police opened fire with automatic weapons on students who were throwing stones and demanding the restoration of water and electricity in their derelict dormitory.

The clashes continued this morning with police firing bullets over students' heads, blasting them with water cannons and pummeling whomever they could catch.

After an emergency meeting with senior officials, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, ordered an investigation into both the protests and the killings. "I offer my condolences to the family of the one who was martyred," Mr. Karzai said in a statement read today on state television. "I again emphasize that a university is not a place of politics."

"The Democrats so far seem to be winning the political high ground," said an Enron briefing paper for Kenneth L. Lay, the company's chairman, in advance of an April 17, 2001, meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney. "What the Bush team needs to do is steal a page from the Clinton new economy playbook and to relegate the Democrats to the Carter 'eat your peas' playbook."

The White House must link the Democrats to "blackouts, waste, Luddites, regulation, government ownership, stagnation" while positioning Bush as the agent of "abundan[ce], efficiency, new economy, innovation, open markets," the document said.

Wow, apparently the notion that maybe going after Iraq is a bad idea because we still need to worry about al-Qaeda and we don't want to piss off our Arab and other "allies" who we need to help find those scum is....now pioneering Conservative thought which never occurred to liberals ever!! Jesse has the scoop.

ESCHATON FLASHBACK!!

Here's what the usual suspects said when Al Gore said basically the same thing (Note, the one by Neal Pollack is parody so please don't send him any more hate mail.)

I like(d) Harold Ford. As Conason points out, he's actually quite the liberal, despite his skill in pretending otherwise. It's clear to me that his campaign to be Leader hasn't been designed to woo support from his party, which he needs, or even from the voters, but it has instead been a campaign directed solely at the mediastocracy. In other words, he's just positioning himself to be the media's favorite Democrat. It'll work like a charm, and he'll get all the face time and column-inches he wants.

Staffers on Mr. Grassley's committee also are looking into Ms. Rehnquist's possession of an unloaded gun to see if she violated local laws or department rules. Ms. Rehnquist for a while kept the gun in her office -- with a target depicting a menacing assailant affixed to the wall -- until her staff persuaded her to instead practice aiming with a harmless laser gun

Patrick McFarland, the Office of Personnel Management's inspector general and dean of the government's 57 inspectors general, has said privately that he would ask the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, the inspector generals' self-policing body, to look into Ms. Rehnquist's use of the gun, other federal employees say. "My best and only answer is 'no comment' regarding the gun situation," says Mr. McFarland, appointed by the first President Bush in 1990. Of high turnover in her office, he adds: "For any political appointee to come in and eliminate people -- if that's true, it's absolutely improper."...

...The new inspector general quickly put her stamp on the office, easing antifraud measures and instead emphasizing voluntary compliance. She scaled back the use of "corporate integrity ," in which health-care companies found to have defrauded the government acquiesce to strict reporting conditions, saying she was "concerned about [their] financial impact" on providers. ...

...Ms. Rehnquist, the office's only political appointee, was so suspicious of civil-servant holdovers from the Clinton administration that she had to be talked out of requiring annual loyalty pledges from
deputies, ...

...One incident in particular raised eyebrows in the inspector general's office and is being looked into by the Finance Committee.

Florida Audit Postponed

Early this year, inspector general officials decided to audit Florida's pension fund amid indications that the Treasury, which contributes money to the fund for state employees who do federal work, had been overcharged. Shortly before auditors were to meet with state officials to start the process in April, Kathleen Shanahan, Gov. Jeb Bush's chief of staff and a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, got word to Ms. Rehnquist that Florida wanted a delay, people close to the inspector general's office said. She granted the request.

Subordinates suspected politics because the delay assured that the audit wouldn't be done until after Election Day...

Another one for the 'if this were the Clinton administration' files...

WASHINGTON- The senator likely to head the Armed Services Committee says Congress may need to break down some legal barriers that prevent soldiers from helping local officials during terrorist attacks and other national emergencies.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said he would hold hearings to review the 19th century Posse Comitatus law that restricts the military's involvement in domestic law enforcement.

"If local law enforcement is totally overwhelmed, would not the military be perhaps the best to help for that interim period until the local law enforcement can reconstitute itself?" Warner said in an interview Tuesday.

In an overview of his priorities, Warner said he wants to help advance the use of unmanned airplanes, naval vessels and other vehicles. He also said he will continue to support President Bush's missile defense plans - something that at times put him at odds with the committee's current chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

Supposedly Trent wants to bring up the 'ole abortion bugaboo while George's aides are against it. This is one of those Rove-dictated articles as it manages to throw meat to the loony right while making George not seem beholden to them.

But, there can be no greater evidence of the moral bankruptcy of the Republican party than the last time this issue was brought up seriously. Leaving aside all of the other debating points about 'partial birth abortions,' in the end it wasn't signed into law by Clinton. Why? Because he demanded that there be an exception for the health and life of the mother and the Republicans wouldn't put one in there. Now we know how they feel about women and the fetuses they claimed to care so much about. They were unconcerned about the lives of both.

The budget mavens at the Heritage Foundation are hoping that last week's big win for Republicans will loosen the wallets of conservative donors enough to help the tank avoid a projected $1 million revenue shortfall this year.

"It's been very difficult," said John Von Kannon, Heritage vice president and treasurer. "When $8 trillion comes out of the economy, people not only feel poorer, they are poorer. The good news is that Ted Turner and Jane Fonda took big hits, too," a poke at two prominent funders of liberal causes.

Cars will be stopped at unannounced, rotating checkpoints within Michigan, including metro Detroit. U.S. Border Patrol agents at the checkpoints will ask passengers their citizenship and will have leeway to ask a host of follow-up questions.

The effort is part of President George W. Bush's attempt to increase security along the northern border, said Immigration and Naturalization spokeswoman Karen Kraushaar.

Monday, November 11, 2002

In the first major settlement to come out of the California energy deregulation debacle, the Williams Companies agreed yesterday to pay more than $400 million to settle accusations that it helped drive up prices and overcharged customers during the state's electric power crisis.

Williams, one of the nation's biggest suppliers of electricity and natural gas, said it would settle a broad set of civil claims with three West Coast states — California, Oregon and Washington — and also resolve class-action lawsuits. As part of the settlement, California said it would not seek customer refunds.

Williams also agreed to restructure a 10-year, $4.3 billion power contract it signed with California at the height of the energy crisis last year, when power prices were soaring.

Comal County elections officials noticed an extreme oddity after the final votes were tallied in
Tuesday's general election.

County Judge Danny Scheel received 18,181 votes in his victory over Lois Duggan.

Republican state Sen. Jeff Wentworth also got 18,181 votes in Comal County in his win over Democrat Joseph Sullivan and Libertarian Rex Black.

To make matters even stranger, Comal County also gave Republican Carter Casteel exactly 18,181 votes in her victory over Democrat Virgil Yanta in the race for District 73 state representative.

"Isn't that the weirdest thing?" County Clerk Joy Streater asked. "We noticed it right away, but it is just a big coincidence. I checked the precincts and the numbers are all different in every precinct for each of them. They just coincidentally all add up to 18,181."

Scheel hadn't noticed the anomaly.

"I'll be darned," he said when it was pointed out to him. "Look at that. That's weird."

Lean Left (link above) has some discussion of Harold Ford I want to add to. The fight for minority leader is an insider fight. So, why is Ford bringing his campaign to the media? Fight your battles behind closed doors, then let the winner lead.

Sunday, November 10, 2002

Please read 'The Human Stain' if you haven't. It was written, according to the author, as a visceral reaction to the Lewinsky nonsense and is, in its own way, as illuminating as the Conason/Lyons and Toobin books.

It's really quite incredible how much attention the liberal media is giving to the issue of just how liberal Nancy Pelosi is.

The Republicans, too, will have a new House Leader soon. Majority, that is. Barring any last minute surprises it will be the Bugman, Tom DeLay. Why aren't we hearing more about him? One can debate whether he is a Christian Reconstructionist, or whether he just panders to them, but why hasn't the liberal media been informing us about his desire to use his position to implement a biblical worldview?

Even more damning was a "Nightline" report broadcast that same evening. The segment came very close to branding Hillary Clinton a perjurer. In his introduction, host Ted Koppel spoke pointedly about "the reluctance of the Clinton White House to be as forthcoming with documents as it promised to be." He then turned to correspondent Jeff Greenfield, who posed a rhetorical question: "Hillary Clinton did some legal work for Madison Guaranty at the Rose Law Firm, at a time when her husband was governor of Arkansas. How much work? Not much at all, she has said."

Up came a video clip from Hillary's April 22, , Whitewater press conference. "The young attorney, the young bank officer, did all the work," she said. "It was not an area that I practiced in. It was not an area that I know anything, to speak of, about." Next the screen filled with handwritten notes taken by White House aide Susan Thomases during the 1992 campaign. "She [Hillary] did all the billing," the notes said. Greenfield quipped that it was no wonder "the White House was so worried about what was in Vince Foster's office when he killed himself."

What the audience didn't know was that the ABC videotape had been edited so as to create an inaccurate impression. At that press conference, Mrs. Clinton had been asked not how much work she had done for Madison Guaranty, but how her signature came to be on a letter dealing with Madison Guaranty's 1985 proposal to issue preferred stock. ABC News had seamlessly omitted thirty-nine words from her actual answer, as well as the cut, by interposing a cutaway shot of reporters taking notes. The press conference transcript shows that she actually answered as follows: "The young attorney [and] the young bank officer did all the work and the letter was sent. But because I was what we called the billing attorney -- in other words, I had to send the bill to get the payment sent -- my name was put on the bottom of the letter. It was not an area that I practiced in. It was not an area that I know anything, to speak of, about."

ABC News had taken a video clip out of context, and then accused the first lady of prevaricating about the very material it had removed. Within days, the doctored quotationpopped up elsewhere. ABC used the identical clip on its evening news broadcast; so did CNN. The New York Times editorial page used it to scold Mrs. Clinton, as did columnist Maureen Dowd. Her colleague William Safire weighed in with an accusatory column of his own: "When you're a lawyer who needs a cover story to conceal close connections to a crooked client," he began, "you find some kid in your office willing to say he brought in the business and handled the client all by himself." Safire predicted the first lady's imminent indictment.

CHERRY HILL, N.J. - November 9, 2002 — The search continues for went wrong with 94 voting machines that were shut down for nearly four hours on Election Day.

The problem prevented township voters from pulling the lever next to Democratic mayoral candidate Bernie Platt's name. The situation was discovered soon after polls opened at 6 a.m. and was straightened out by 9:45 a.m.

Despite the mishap, Platt still easily defeated Republican opponent Alene Ammond by nearly 8,000 votes. Still, Ammond said the issue was "suspicious" and has called for a federal investigation.

The machines are owned by Camden County and serviced by International Election Services, a company based in Beverly. The 30-year-old firm has worked with the county for 15 years.

Two counties on Florida's east coast are angry over Sequoia Voting Systems' failure to reveal that one of its top executives is under indictment in a voting equipment scandal. News of the criminal charges already has jeopardized a $15.5-million contract in Pinellas County and sparked questions in Hillsborough County, where Sequoia also wants to sell its electronic voting machines.

On Tuesday, Indian River County leaders voided a $2-million contract with Sequoia, furious that they were not told before signing the deal that the man they negotiated with is charged in a Louisiana money laundering and corruption conspiracy. "They did something that was unconscionable in dealing with the public . . . not informing us this gentleman was indicted," said county Commissioner John Tippin.

"It's going to take a near miracle, I think, for us to do business with this company." And some Palm Beach County commissioners are steamed that Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore didn't tell them about the charges before they inked a deal in September. "I didn't think it was relevant," LePore said in an interview. "I signed the contract, not the commissioners. They trust me to make the right decision."

But what is the need for this coyness? The Democrats should stop hiding behind 'freedom of choice' and become blatant advocates for divorce, illegitimacy, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, and pornography. Indeed the Democrats could become the Party of the Seven Deadly Sins. The political advantage of this approach is that the Seven Deadly Sins are immensely popular. Imagine the political opportunities if all vices were associated with the Democratic party!"

Dr. Pangloss forgot an essential ingredient in his whimsical economic cocktail: being compelled to wear a smile and whistle depression-era tunes like "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries" and "We're in the Money."

I'm sure Professor Delong's preternatually bright nine-year-old would see through this nonsense in a flash.

"Dad, dad, can I ask you a question?"
"Yes."
"I read that article in the Wall Street Journal you recommended and there's something I don't understand."
"What's that?"
"If I own three factories and only have sufficient orders for two of them, why would I want to build a fourth?"